India becomes world’s 4th largest defence spender

According to the recently released 2016 IHS Jane’s Defence Budgets report, India has become the world’s fourth largest defence spender.
In this edition of report published by US research firm IHS Inc, India has surpassed Russia, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s fourth largest defence spender. 

Key Highlights from report

• United States, China, and the UK remain the top three defence spender in the world. In 2016, the total global defence spending increased to $1.57 trillion.
• US tops with mammoth defence spending of $622 billion. China is second with defence spending of $191.75 billion.
• India had spent $50.6 billion in 2016 on defence sector, up from $46.6 billion the year 2015. Thus, India spends some 1.8% of its GDP on defence. Of this, up to 36% is spent on capital acquisition.
• Over the next few years, India will re-emerge as a key growth market for defence suppliers to fulfill its military focused modernisation. India will surpass the UK in defence spending by 2018.
• India needs to spend some $130 billion to modernise its military over the next seven years.
• NDA Government since coming to power in May 2014 has laid tremendous stress on ramping up the country’s defence facilities.
• India also has been looking at increasing share of domestic manufacturing in defence goods. The foreign direct investment (FDI) limit for the defence sector in India also has been raised to 49%.
• India’s defence and aerospace market is among the most attractive globally. Government is keen to leverage this advantage to promote investments in the sector.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2016